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2001 Volkswagen Beetle Owner Comments

Beetle 4-cyl Diesel

Manual transmission

55,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

2001 New beetle 1.9 L tdi, 55,000 mi.: engine mil light comes on solid and glo-plug light blinks on/off at steady rate (no apparent code to blink rate). Foot throttle control is lost and engine changes from (normal) idle (950 RPM) with foot-throttle ("accelerator") control to complete loss of foot throttle and steady 1200 RPM engine speed. This may happen at random times during driving or (once) even within seconds after starting engine before vehicle is put in gear or begins moving. Most times, it occurs when vehicle is at speed, causing immediate loss of speed (I.e. 2000 RPM in 5th gear = 55 mph changes to 1200 RPM = 35 mph). Independent garage has 'read' obd-II diagnostic codes and determined "throttle out of range". two "remedies" (1) "re-boot" the vehicle (turn ignition off and then back on --- requiring straight/wide stretch of road because of interlock with steering), after which throttle control is regained for some random period of time (fraction of a km to several km's) before throttle control is lost again... or resort to vehicle operation with "hand throttle" (called "cruise control". with 1200 RPM engine speed limit, vehicle can be driven if very gingerly shifted gears, getting up to 20-25 mph in 3rd gear at which point "cruise control" ("cc") can be engaged. Subsequently higher speeds can be obtained by incremental (1 mph) increases on cc, eventually regaining 55 mph (2000 RPM) engine speed. Driving in traffic required continuous engagement & disengagement/re-engagement of hand throttle ("cc") as foot throttle is useless. Starting from traffic signals, merging with high speed traffic, etc. Is inconvenient at best and, typically, quite hazardous when considering the constant 1200 RPM engine speed limitation (until the painstaking hand throttle increments slowly allow speed increases from 20-25 mph to highway speeds. VW customer care claims there is no recall and they are "unaware" of a problem.

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